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Programs

The Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching (CELT) provides pedagogy workshops and seminars, book clubs, one-on-one consultations, a lending library, and assistance with teaching portfolios to faculty, staff, postdocs, and graduate students who are or will be teaching. The proposed programs listed below are subject to change to reflect the needs and desires of Tulane’s faculty.

​CELT Brown Bag Workshops are held frequently throughout the semester on a variety of topics of interest to faculty and/or anyone engaged in the classroom. Essentially informal conversations, these workshops are led by a member of the Tulane community on a topic of their choice. This is an opportunity for faculty at all ranks, from, adjunct to full professor, as well as graduate students, postdocs, and staff who are interested to meet and talk about teaching and showcase the innovative work they’re doing in their classes, with the aim of improving the classroom experience for students. Major Brown Bag themes include pedagogy, mentorship, diversity, technology, faculty wellness, and HR topics. The Brown Bag Workshops are among CELT’s most popular and well-attended programs.

The CELT Faculty Book Club provides 10 educators, from across departments and schools, the opportunity to read and discuss books on a variety of pedagogy and learning theory topics. Conversations range from the macro level, how to improve the academy, to more micro topics relating to each participant’s individual class. Most importantly, the book club creates a structure in which participants can talk about teaching in a supportive environment around a common theme. The book club meets twice per semester, usually on campus, and CELT pays for the books, food, and refreshments. Please email Toni Weiss at tweiss@tulane.edu to sign up.

Distilling the research literature and translating the scientific approach into language relevant to a college or university teacher, this book introduces seven general principles of how students learn. The authors have drawn on research from a breadth of perspectives (cognitive, developmental, and social psychology; educational research; anthropology; demographics; organizational behavior) to identify a set of key principles underlying learning, from how effective organization enhances retrieval and use of information to what impacts motivation. Integrating theory with real-classroom examples in practice, this book helps faculty to apply cognitive science advances to improve their own teaching.

At the end of each semester CELT hosts Faculty Grading Breaks to reward you for all your hard work. Past events have featured crepes and gelletes from Crepes Rendezvous, wine or champagne, and massage chairs. They are a great way to socialize, eat, and relax during the often stressful grading period at the end of the semester.

CELT, in partnership with the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (OGPS) offer a day-long teaching workshop in mid-May for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who have or anticipate having a teaching assignment. The workshop will offer both large format discussions as well as smaller, breakout sessions. Workshop topics typically include classroom management and setting boundaries, leading discussions, collaborative/group work, grading, and active learning.

If you have any questions about the GTA Workshop content, schedule, or would like to present as a workshop leader please email Emily Gatehouse at egatehou@tulane.edu.

Imagine speed dating, but instead of romantic hopefuls sitting across from each other at small tables, picture Tulane professors, eager to join forces, interested in the development of an innovative, interdisciplinary class. This workshop brings together professors hailing from many different fields of study. Each round, two professors, paired randomly, sit down for 8 minutes and develop a class or paper they could work on together. After four or five rounds, the group then votes on the most creative idea and the most actionable idea. Previously, one of the winning titles, from Architecture and Neuroscience was “Architecture in Sickness & Health: Hospitals, Prisons, and Schools.” Another, from Art History and Cellular Biology was “Imagining and Imaging Mutants through Natural History Illustrations.”